:::Izabal:::(Caribbean Coast)

zabal is one of the 22 departments that make up the nation of Guatemala.Izabal is bordered to the north by Belize, to the north east by the Gulf of Honduras, and to the east by Honduras, and by the Guatemalan departments of Petén to the north west, Alta Verapaz to the west, and Zacapa to the south.
The department of Izabal surrounds Lago Izabal (or Lago de Izabal), Guatemala's largest lake (about 48 km long and 24 km wide, with an area of about 590 km²). The Spanish Colonial was Fort of San Felipe, now a Guatemalan national monument, overlooks the point where the lake flows into the Río Dulce.
The small town of Izabal is on the south shore of the lake; before the construction of the ports of Livingston and Puerto Barrios in the 19th century this was Guatemala's main Caribbean Sea port and was the original seat of Izabal department; nowadays, however, Izabal town is a remote village that gets little traffic.
From the area around Lake Izabal, the Department of Izabal stretches along the Río Dulce to the coast of the Caribbean Sea.
The department of Izabal includes the ports of Puerto Barrios (the departmental seat), Santo Tomás de Castilla and Livingston. Izabal also includes the Pre-Columbian Maya ruins of Quirigua.

 

:::Río Dulce :::(Caribbean Coast)

Río Dulce ("Sweet River") is a river in Guatemala. It is part of a lake and river system that has become a very popular cruising sailboat destination. It is entered at the town of Livingston. The river meanders for six miles in a spectacular gorge. The sides of the gorge rise up to 300 feet on either side and are covered with teak, mahogany and palms. Wild flowers bloom throughout the foliage and howler monkeys and toucans can be seen. Waterfalls flow over the lip of the gorge after rainfalls.
The river opens into a long narrow lake called El Golfete. To starboard is an island and a large natural anchorage. A few houses and a couple of small businesses are on shore. El Golfete is about 10 miles long and a couple of miles wide. At its farthest end it becomes river again for a couple of miles. It is this area that several marinas and resorts are to be found.
As the river is about to enter Lake Izabal it is spanned by one of the biggest bridges in Central America. On one side of the bridge is the town of Fronteras, the local center of commerce for the area. On the other side is Rellenos. Fronteras is where the local veggie market is and Indians come in from the countryside in dugout canoes. Most of these boats are powered with Japanese outboard motors but many come to market day paddling these “cayucos” by hand.
At the very entrance of the lake is Castillo San Felipe built by the Spanish when this part of Central America was an important transshipping staging point.

:::Livingston::: (Caribbean Coast)
Livingston is the name of a town in Izabal department, Guatemala, at the mouth of the Río Dulce at the Gulf of Honduras. The town (whose name is occasionally adapted into Spanish orthography as Lívingston) serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. It was Guatemala's main port on the Caribbean Sea before the construction of nearby Puerto Barrios.
Livingston is noted for its unusual mix of Garífuna, Maya, and Latino people and culture. In recent decades Livingston has developed a large tourist industry.
Livingston is named after U.S. american jurist and politician Edward Livingston who wrote the Livingston Codes which were used as the basis for the laws of the liberal government of the United Provinces of Central America in the early 19th century.

:::Puerto Barrios::: (Caribbean Coast)

Puerto Barrios is a city in Guatemala, located at on the Gulf of Honduras at 15°43'N 88°35'W. The bay in which the harbor is located is called Bahia de Amatique. Puerto Barrios is the departmental seat of Izabal department and the administrative seat of Puerto Barrios municipality.

Puerto Barrios was named after President Justo Rufino Barrios. It is Guatemala's main Caribbean Sea port, together with its more modern twin port town just to the southwest, Santo Tomás de Castilla. In 2003 the estimated population of Puerto Barrios was 40,900 people. http://www.guate360.com/galeria/categories.php?cat_id=42

Puerto Barrios is located 297 kilometers northeast of Guatemala City. It is the terminus of Highway CA9 which begins at the Pacific port city of Puerto San Jose and traverses the country through Guatemala City. The earthquake on February 4th of 1976, one of the worst in the history of the country, destroyed most of the port facilities of Puerto Barrios, and most modern cargo traffic moved to its twin port in Santo Tomás de Castilla. Today, Puerto Barrios remains an important hub for Dole and Del Monte industries.

Puerto Barrios is a mix of mostly Latino, Maya, Afro-Caribbean, and Jamaican peoples. Its heyday was in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, following the construction of a railroad connecting large banana plantations with the shipping docks.

In a strange twist of history, the harbor was partly built by Theodore Roosevelt's Corps of Engineers in 1906-1908. Puerto Barrios is also the terminus for the United Fruit Company's railway, UFCO. UFCO still operates out of these two harbors.

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